Get to know about Linguistics

Have you ever wondered, why if there are two mice, we should call it "two mice" in English instead of "two mouses"?? Also, why is the way to read the words of tree and three are different, although just different on one letter? Why???

Questions like these are questions that encourage the learning interest of linguistics.

Linguistics is a science which studies the ins and outs of language. Linguistics experts develop and test hypotheses about language scientifically. Linguists investigate how humans acquire language knowledge, how cognitive processes occur when someone speaks words, how geographical differences affect differences in variation, how influences the use of language in certain contexts, etc.

Linguistics includes knowledge of all aspects of language as a means of communication. The smallest aspect of language is the sound of language. This knowledge includes the process of producing language sounds from the speaker until the sound is received by the listener. The next aspect is the word, which is a combination of several language sounds. Knowledge of words will allow us to know how words are formed. Furthermore, knowledge of phrases and sentences, which are a combination of several words.

At a broader level, linguistics can also include knowledge about language variations according to social groups. In addition, linguistics can also discuss the ideology of a text, even forms of communication using various modes of communication. This is usually called multimodality, which refers to the use of various modes, not only verbal modes but also various nonverbal modes, in communication.

Linguistics spans a large number of subfields, each dealing with a different part of the language faculty.

Phonetics - the study of the acoustics and sounds of languages

A phonetician might, for example, look at how stress manifests in a language.
In English, the stressed word in a normal sentence is louder and higher pitched: “ANna likes bananas.” If we ask a question though, it’s pronounced with a lower pitch: “ANna likes bananas?”

Phonology - the study of sound systems and how they pattern

For example, in English, there are many examples of t's in the middle of words that sound quite different fromt's at the beginning or end of words. Listen to the t's in "toted" and you’ll hear that they don’t sound the same. The first t is pronounced with a puff of air (put your hand in front of your mouth to check this) but the second is not and it sounds like the d in “coded.” This sound is called a tap because your tongue taps the roof of your mouth briefly and it is very similar to the tapped r sound in languages like Spanish or Japanese (this leads to misperceptions of the English middle tas an r for speakers of these languages).

Syntax - the study of sentence structure

English and many western European languages have a phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who, which, what, where, when, why, and how. Think about the sentence “I eat an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word whatcorresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence.

In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to the same position as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eat what?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred and the structure is: “What do you eat what?” A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether it has wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time!

Semantics - the study of meaning and formalizing it into a logical form

English and many western European languages have a phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who, which, what, where, when, why, and how.

Think about the sentence “I eat an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word whatcorresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence. In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to the same position (called in-situ) as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eatwhat?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred and the structure is:

In English, the wh-word moves to the front of the sentence (why “do” appears in questions is another issue that I don’t have room to tackle here). A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether it has wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time

Psycholinguistics - the study of how language manifests in the brain

Psycholinguists carry out experiments to observe the reaction of the brain’s different areas to different stimuli, and they’ll try to relate the findings to the more abstract linguistic theories.

An example is tracking people’s eye movements when they read the sentence “The old man the boat.” This is known as a garden path sentence, because readers are led down a “false path.” The reader does a double take once s/he reaches “the”, having expected a verb to appear. The second time around, the reader realizes that “man” is a verb and then parses the sentence correctly. These garden path sentences provide insight into how sentence parsing occurs in the brain.

Sociolinguistics - the study of the intersection of language with society

Sociolinguists might look at attitudes toward different linguistic features and its relation to class, race, sex, etc. For example, one of the fathers of sociolinguistics, William Labov, carried out an experiment in New York City in which he visited three department stores--a low end one (S. Klein), a mid-end one (Macy’s), and a high-end one (Saks Fifth Avenue)--and inquired where a department was in order to prompt the answer “fourth floor.”

The higher end the store, the more likely the “r” was pronounced, and when asked to repeat, it was only Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s where the “r” became much more likely to be pronounced the second time around. The study also had implications for the ability in different communities to code switch to a prestige dialect.

Computational linguistics - the study of applying computer science to linguistics

Computational linguists might use programming to model linguistic structure or change or for practical applications, such as Natural Language Processing, which has implications both for figuring out and modeling how language acquisition works as well as for translation software.

Historical linguistics - the study of how languages change across time

Historical linguists may work in language specific areas, carrying out what is called reconstruction. Just as evolutionary biologists compare features of related organisms to reconstruct their common ancestor, historical linguists do the same with related languages, under the important fact that languages change regularly.

As a simple example, f’s at the beginning of English words correspond to p’s at the beginning of Latin words if neither is borrowed from another language (father : pater, fish : pisces,

pellis : felt, pes : foot). Using reconstructions, historical linguists will try to trace migration patterns and make inferences about the prehistoric culture, triangulating with results by geneticists, anthropologists, and archaeologists. Historical linguists might also look at what patterns exist in language change and seek to explain why these patterns exist.

Applied linguistics - the study of applying linguistics to real-life situations

An applied linguistic will likely work in fields such as such as language education, translation, or language policy. For example, an applied linguist may also carry out research in first and second language acquisition in order to figure out effective and efficient ways to teach language in school settings.

Every science, no matter how theoretical, certainly has practical benefits for human life. Likewise with linguistics. Linguistics will provide direct benefits to those involved in language-related activities, such as the linguist itself, language teachers, translators, textbook compilers, dictionary compilers, information officers, journalists, politicians, diplomats, and so on. Chaer (2014: 25)

For teachers, especially language teachers, linguistics knowledge is very important, ranging from phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, lexicology subdisciplines, to knowledge of the relationship between language and society and culture. How is it possible for a language teacher to practice language skills if he/she does not master phonology; how could teacher possibly practice writing if he/she did not master spelling, morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicology. In addition, as a language teacher he not only must practice language skills, but also must explain the rules of language correctly.

Between language and linguistic teaching, there are indeed conflicting views. Teaching is prescriptive or normative, while linguistics is descriptive. So in the hands of teachers who understand linguistics, the two different views can be understood. He will be able to formulate prescriptive rules from descriptive rules, so that teaching can work well.

"Language is more valuable than anything. What is the most valuable thing in life besides life? Language is arguably number two. Even animals have their own way of communicating with one another."

Source :

•https://id.oxforddictionaries.com/pengetahuan-praktis/mengapa-linguistik-ilmu-bahasa-itu-penting

•http://blog.cambridgecoaching.com/what-is-linguistics-intro-to-branches-of-linguistics

•https://mojok.co/apk/komen/versus/apa-itu-linguistik-panduan-singkat-linguistics-for-beginner/